Daily Archives: April 28, 2012

I wrote previously about witnessing history when my daughter and I went down to the National Mall to see the final flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery and then went down to the Udvar-Hazy Annex of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum to see it touch noses with the Enterprise before being installed permanently. NASA was out in full force for installation ceremony along with many former astronauts. It is bittersweet to see the shuttle era end, but well worth reviewing some of the highlights of the program’s history.

1981 – A new space era dawns

In 1981, the Space Shuttle era began, retiring the Apollo model of space exploration. Instead of one-time use, the new Space Shuttles, beginning with the Space Shuttle Columbia, would take off, land just as many of the experimental X-vehicles had done, and then be ready for relaunch–the iconic image of the shuttle attached to two rocket boosters and one enormous fuel tank. It was perfectly designed for in-orbit missions and working with the International Space Station.

Once it concluded its mission, the pilots would set the coordinates for unpowered landing–in other words, it became like a 100-ton glider aimed at dried lakebed at Edwards, California. Once landed, the engines would be removed and shipped back to Cape Canaveral, while the shuttle would be lifted onto the modified 747 that would fly it home (just like it is seen in the video above). NASA teams would go over the shuttle to confirm that nothing was amiss after the stresses of takeoff, mission completion, and re-entry, in preparation for the next launch. This is why the Space Shuttle was different.

1980s – Challenges

In light of miscalculations on the cost of the shuttle, launch, return, refurbishment, and reuse, NASA pushed itself, setting records that still stand today, by launching 9 missions in 1985. The second launch of 1986 was that of the Challenger. The margin for error is practically non-existent in launching a Space Shuttle, and that Challenger launch was sadly flawed.

Up to this point, there had been 24 successful missions flown by Space Shuttles Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis that launched communications satellites, Spacelabs, mammals, foreign crew members, and whose flight time lasted as little as 2 days, 6 hours, and 13 minutes (2nd launch, Columbia, 11/12/81, Joe H. Engle and Richard H. Truly) to as long as 10 days, 7 hours, and 47 minutes (9th launch, Columbia, 11/28/83, John W. Young, Brewster H. Shaw, Owen K. Garriott, Robert A. R. Parker, Byron K. Lichtenberg, Ulf Merbold, West German–1st non-U.S. astronaut). This time, however, with American History teacher and the primary candidate for the NASA Teacher in Space Program, Christa McAuliffe on board, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after take-off. Across the country, American school students were watching in their classrooms. None of the crew survived.

The destruction put the program on hold for 32 months while the accident was investigated and NASA spent time reflecting on how to better protect its people. On September 29, 1988, the Discovery returned to the launch pad and space. The following year, Atlantis, would launch the Venus orbiter Magellan from its orbit around the Earth, and on a subsequent mission, the Jupiter probe and orbiter, Galileo.

1990s – A decade for science exploration

On April 24, 1990, the third shuttle mission of the new decade, Discovery launched the Hubble Space Telescope, then would later launch the Ulysses spacecraft to investigate interstellar space and the Sun. This initiated a number of research craft for NASA (this does not include all experiments, merely the deployment of research equipment):

The highlights arguably being the International Space Station and the Mir Space Station, from 1995 – to the present. By the close of the decade, December 19, 1999, the program had reached 96 missions.

"Mosaic of Journey" by 7th grader Grace Chandler, from Woodbury MN (photographed at the installation ceremony)

2000s – 100 and beyond

The 100th mission, flown by Discovery on October 11, 2000, delivered the first piece of the backbone structure of the ISS. Going into the 21st Century, the Space Shuttle underwent a series of improvements for safety and function, streamlining weight and processes. Despite this, on February 1, 2003, Space Shuttle Columbia re-entered in the Earth’s atmosphere, following a 17-day science mission, and exploded over the lower half of the United States.

That morning I was standing next to the runway [at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida] with [NASA Administrator] Sean O’Keefe. We were right next to the bleachers with the families, waiting for Columbia to come home. We were all watching the countdown clock. We didn’t have access to TV. The clock was getting down to where I expected we’d have radar lock-on, tracking cameras, all those kinds of things being announced. The only thing I’m hearing is comm[unications] checks over the voice loop. Then we get five minutes prior to touchdown, and no sigh of them nothing. They’re still doing comm checks. At that point I went back to the car and got my contingency folder that I carry with me everywhere, and I said to Sean, “I think something really bad has happened. They’re certainly not landing here.”

Shortly thereafter the phones started ringing, with reports that debris had been sighted over east Texas. So we collected up the families and took them to the crew quarters, and got them comfortable. We started working on what we thought might be a search-and-rescue plan, but it soon became apparent that it was a search-and-recovery.

~William Readdy, Space Shuttle, 1981-2011, Air & Space Smithsonian

The Space Shuttle program would continue after another pause, investigation, and reflection until 2005. The ship that launched the Space Shuttle program into orbit in 1981, was lost along with its crew of seven.

By this time, Discovery had already surpassed Columbia in missions, making it the most traveled relic of the Space Shuttle era.

2010-2011 – Final descent into history

There would be six final missions, with the Shuttles Endeavor, Discovery and Atlantis would each fly a final two missions.

Number of missions:

Discovery —– 39

Atlantis ——– 33

Columbia —— 28*

Endeavor —— 25

Challenger —– 10*

* includes ill-fated final mission

~ Ibid.

Today, the Discovery has replaced the Enterprise, which never flew in space but was used to test the Shuttle’s atmospheric flight, at the Udvar-Hazy Annex of the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum. When it flew into the DC area, we caught above footage in front of the Capitol. Below are photos from the installation ceremony, before Enterprise was finally able to get up to New York, NY after several weather delays.

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